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Tag Archives: gothic doom

So, the last two matches of the first week sees Group F’s four teams play and maybe, fingers crossed, one team (or more) may score more than 2 goals in the game!

GAME ELEVEN: AUSTRIA vs HUNGARY

HORIZONIST vs ZIVATAR

Horizonist are a gothic/doom tinged outfit from Austria, utilising Pete Steele-esque vocals over heavy riffs and some tasty bass work to produce a quit enjoyable listen. Nothing revolutionary but good just the same.

Zivatar is a one-man atmospheric doom act from Hungary who adds some industrial touches that add a sense of foreboding to his songs. He also uses a lot of spoken samples that adds another level of creepiness to the album. Best listened with headphones.

PREDICTION: As my predictions are falling by the wayside, I’m going to double down and say that this will be the highest scoring game so far: 4-3 to Austria.

Musically, I was quite engaged with Zivatar and his take on atmospheric/industrial/sample-laden doom.

GAME TWELVE: PORTUGAL vs ICELAND

Tongues of Dying Men play polka-infused folk meta……nah I’m just kidding, they play black metal. Not just black metal, the type that ToDM play starts off quite mellow and melodic and when the drums and guitar kicks in it turns into a slow to mid-paced pretty good BM. Worth investigating.

When checking out groups for these blog posts I was amazed by the amount of excellent metal acts that are from Iceland. Almyrkvi are an atmospheric BM act that have released a great ep that you really need to listen to. I’m not great at putting my thoughts and emotions into words but I do know good music when I hear it, and this is very good!

PREDICTION: Without Christiano Ronaldo, Portugal are a bog-average side. With Ronaldo, Portugal are a bog-average side with a world class player who will fluke a spawny 1-0 over a very good, organised Icelandic team (I hope I’m wrong and Iceland win)

Thaddaeus are (now) a three piece funeral doom act with traces of gothic doom, ambient married with some lovely classical/orchestral music to push the band above the likes of others in this genre. Similar to some of Dis Pater’s many guises, Thaddaeus’ vocals are reminiscent of Nick Cave and this is what makes me tingle inside!

From Uruguay come Aplanadora, who’s first album featured six Sabbath songs and was called ‘Tributo a Black Sabbath’ so it’s no surprise to discover who they are influenced by! Good old fashioned no-frills meat and potatoes 80’s metal that’s just bloody good fun!

This will be the first meeting between the two nations; Australia are the only Tier One nation that has not had a XV that has faced Uruguay in a Test match. Australia have won five of their last six Tests, this after suffering defeat in six of their seven games before that. After Wales’ victory over England, Australia will be looking to exploit an English defeat and take second (and maybe first) spot and I believe that The Wallabies will do this.

Musically, although Aplanadora are great fun and are a solid metal act however, due to the more textured layers of Thaddaeus’ music I’m giving this win to them.

GAME 18: SCOTLAND vs USA

TRANSCENSION vs ARES KINGDOM

Transcension are a bunch of hairy-arsed Scotsmen from the sunny shores of Greenock (which is a quaint fishing village on the Clyde!) playing some fantastic melodic death metal and with the twin guitar sound and clean vocals they give the songs a power metal/Thin Lizzy-‘Celtic’ feel to them which is very refreshing and something that makes me a fan of their music. Only one album at the moment but damn the quality of the songs make me excited to hear more from these guys!

Ares Kingdom have been around since 1997 featuring two members of black/trash metal act Order From Chaos. They’ve been releasing consistently great music since 2003 and have a new album out this year………so why I have only just heard about them now? Probably because I’m a freaking idiot! Anyhoo, Ares Kingdom are an excellent death/thrash metal act, in the vein of Bolt Thrower/Hail of Bullets/Blasphemic Cruelty, who many of you will probably be familiar with, for those (like me) who may not know them, i suggest just clicking the youtube link and listen to some amazing metal!

PREDICTION: Scotland have won all four meetings between the two nations by an average margin of 33 points and I can’t see anything from the USA to make it 5 wins for Scotland and see the Scots retake first place in the Group.

Musically this is very exciting for me. as I’ve discovered two great new bands, even if one of them has been around for a while! Both bands play different variations of death metal: Transcension are more melodic and ‘Celtic’ influenced whilst Ares Kingdom are more experienced, heavier and nastier but both bands have released excellent music. In the end experience wins out for Ares Kingdom (I’m off to buy the new album as soon as I get paid and catch up on their previous stuff) but as for Transcension the future’ looks really bright for them and I’l be hunting down their album too! (See! I don’t always sit on the fence!)

GAME 19: IRELAND vs ROMANIA

SONUS MORTIS vs INDIAN FALL

One of the pleasures of doing these posts is that I get to discover so many new bands and some great music from all over the world and here’s another band I’m thrilled to have found. Kevin Byrne is the brains behind twisted, noisy, symphonic death/doom metal act Sonus Mortis. Aggressive, harsh yet melodic, mixing the power of Aanal Nathrakh with some heavy DM riffs, cool gothic doom passages and nasty vocals makes this a great listening experience.

The Irish have won all 14 games against non-Tier one opposition in the Rugby World Cup; those 14 wins have come by an average margin of 30 points. Ireland defeated Romania by 30 and 28-point margins at the 1999 and 2003 editions of this tournament respectively. the Romanians will probably give the Irish more of a test than the Canadians did but not much more. Ireland for the win.

Musically the Irish will take this again though Indian Fall are no slouches, I just felt more moved by Sonus Mortis.